I am currently working in three research projects. 1) Causes of Peace – The Botswana, Malawi and Zambia “Zone of Peace” 2) What are they fighting for? Conflict Issues and the Resolution of Civil War3) Conflicts, Connections, Complexities: Towards a Multi-layered Understanding of Civil War. and 4) Demagogues of Hate or Shepherds of Peace? Why ‘Warlord Democrats’ (Re) securitize Wartime Identities.

During the fall of 2016, I was a guest researcher at Durham University. From June 2008 until February 2014, I was a PhD-candidate at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University. My dissertation deals with communal conflicts and why they turn violent in some regions but not in others. I use a comparative approach, based on field-work, and compare three different regions – Darfur, Eastern Sudan and Jonglei – of Sudan and Southern Sudan.

I spent the spring of 2012 as a visiting scholar at the Center on International Cooperation at New York University. During my time as PhD-candidate, I also served as a member of an academic task force set up in order to support the work of the UNSG Special Envoy on Darfur (Jan Eliasson). In addition, I have worked as a consultant for the Mediation Support Unit at the Department of Political Affairs, United Nations.

From August 2005, until I started the PhD-program I worked within the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP). Before taking up the position as project leader for the Uppsala Conflict Database in 2006 I worked as a research assistant with prevention and human security issues.

Research

Since February 2014 I am employed as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University. My current research is carried out within three projects.

1). Causes of Peace – The Botswana, Malawi and Zambia “Zone of Peace” project funded by The Swedish Research Council (U-forsk). Botswana, Malawi and Zambia constitute a “Zone of Peace” spared from violent conflict since independence. The project aims to explain why peace has prevailed in these countries despite being located in the world’s most volatile continent with all their neighbors struck by conflict. More information about this project can be found at http://pcr.uu.se/research/peace--peacebuilding-and-reconciliation/causes-of-peace/

2). Demagogues of Hate or Shepherds of Peace? Why ‘Warlord Democrats’ (Re) securitize Wartime Identities a project that examines why some former commanders that enter politics incite fear and cement wartime cleavages whereas others do not. In this project, I am responsible for South Sudan. More information about this project can be found here http://pcr.uu.se/research/peace--peacebuilding-and-reconciliation/demagogues-of-hate-or-shepherds-of-peace

3). Conflicts, Connections, Complexities: Towards a Multi-layered Understanding of Civil War. This project examines why some civil wars – like Syria, Afghanistan and South Sudan – become complex interlinked patchworks of different conflict types while others do not. More information about this project can be found at http://pcr.uu.se/research/conflict-dynamics/conflicts--connections--complexities/

In 2016, I was also involved in the project Attacks on Cultural Heritages: Causes and Consequences Examined from a Multidisciplinary Perspective, which examines why cultural heritage sometimes are attacked during armed conflicts.

Publications

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